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DECREE No. 104/2004/ND-CP OF MARCH 23, 2004 ON THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

THE GOVERNMENT

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the November 12, 1996 Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the December 16, 2002 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 18/2003/ND-CP of February 20, 2003 defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Government Office;

At the proposal of the Minister-Director of the Government Office,

DECREES:

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- Regulation objects and scope of the Decree

This Decree prescribes the position and function of the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereinafter called Official Gazette); tasks, organization and operation of the Official Gazette offices; the procedures for sending, reception and publication of legal documents in the Official Gazette; and the responsibilities of State bodies for the publication of legal documents in the Official Gazette.

Article 2.- Position, functions of the Official Gazette

1. Official Gazette is the official legal information publication of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam uniformly managed by the Government; has the function to publicize legal documents and the effective time thereof according to law provisions, international agreements which have already taken effect on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, except for the international agreements which, as agreed upon by the parties, shall not be publicized or are not allowed to be publicized under decisions of competent agencies; to inform, disseminate legal documents promulgated by competent bodies, organizations and/or persons of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereinafter called the competent bodies for short).

2. The Official Gazette is published at the central level and provinces as well as centrally-run cities (hereinafter called the provincial level); and is published widely to all subjects using it.

3. The Official Gazette includes printed Official Gazette and electronic Official Gazette. The Official Gazette published at the central level shall have its supplements.

The Prime Minister shall separately prescribe the operation of the electronic Official Gazette.

Article 3.- Official Gazette Offices

1. The Official Gazette offices shall include the central Official Gazette office and the provincial-level Official Gazette offices, which are tasked to receive, register, systematize, archive and disseminate legal documents sent by competent promulgating agencies; organize the publication and distribution of Official Gazette.

2. The central Official Gazette office organizes the reception, registration, systemization, archival and dissemination of legal documents promulgated by competent bodies of the central level; organizes the publication and distribution of the printed Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

3. The provincial-level Official Gazette offices organize the reception, registration, systemization, archival and dissemination of legal documents promulgated by competent bodies of the provincial or district level; organize the publication and distribution of the printed Official Gazette within their respective localities.

Article 4.- Principles for publication of documents in the Official Gazette

1. The Official Gazette publishes in an accurate and timely manner the full texts of all legal documents promulgated by competent bodies.

2. The Official Gazette does not publish State secret documents on the list of State secrets as provided for by law.

Article 5.- Documents published in the central Official Gazette

1. Legal documents promulgated by competent bodies of the central level.

2. Decisions of agencies competent to handle illegal legal documents; particular documents; other legally valid documents decided by competent bodies.

3. International agreements which have already taken effect on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as provided for in Clause 1, Article 2 of this Decree.

4. The Official Gazette supplements are distributed together with Official Gazette, publishing draft legal documents when competent State bodies decide to publish them for gathering comments of agencies, organizations and individuals.

Article 6.- Documents published in the provincial-level Official Gazette

1. The legal documents promulgated by the People's Councils and the People's Committees of the provincial or district level.

2. Decisions of the agencies competent to handle illegal documents; particular documents; other legally valid documents decided by presidents of the provincial- or district-level People's Committees.

3. Legal documents already published in the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which had been promulgated by competent bodies at the central level regarding their respective localities.

Article 7.- Legal validity and effective time of documents published in the Official Gazette

1. Legal documents published in the Official Gazette have the same validity as the original documents; are the sole official documents together with their originals to be used for comparison and use in all circumstances where exist the discrepancies between documents published in the Official Gazette and documents obtained from other sources or when appear legal disputes.

2. Legal documents printed and published by publishers or mass media agencies do not have the same legal validity as when they are published in the Official Gazette but only have the reference validity.

3. The effective time of legal documents shall be the time prescribed in Article 75 of the 2002 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

The effective time of the legal documents promulgated by the Government, the Prime Minister, the ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the jointly-promulgated legal documents shall be 15 days after their publication in the Official Gazette or later if it is so prescribed in such documents.

For legal documents promulgated by the Government, the Prime Minister, ministers and/or provincial-level People's Committees for application of implementation measures in urgent situation, the effective time shall be prescribed right in those documents, without depending on the dates of their publication in the Official Gazette.

4. The effective time of particular documents and other legally valid documents shall be decided by the agencies competent to promulgate the documents right in such documents, without depending on the dates of their publication in the Official Gazette.

The effective time of international agreements for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam shall be determined according to the mutual agreement of the parties or to law provisions on conclusion and implementation of international agreements and be inscribed in the copies of the originals of such international agreements.

5. The effective time of legal documents published in the provincial-level Official Gazette shall not depend on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

Chapter II

TIME LIMITS AND PROCEDURES FOR SENDING, RECEPTION AND REGISTRATION OF DOCUMENTS FOR PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Article 8.- Time limits for sending documents for publication in the Official Gazette

1. The legal documents promulgated by competent bodies at the central level must be sent to the central Official Gazette office within two days at most as from the dates they are promulgated, for publication in the Official Gazette.

2. The documents promulgated by competent bodies in the provinces or centrally-run cities must be sent to the provincial-level Official Gazette offices within two days at most as from the dates they are promulgated, for publication in the Official Gazette.

3. The Official Gazette offices must receive fully and according to the law-prescribed procedures the documents sent by the promulgating agencies within the above-prescribed time limit for publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 9.- Procedures for sending, reception and registration of documents for publication in Official Gazette

1. The documents sent for publication in the Official Gazette must be the originals.

2. Where the documents sent for publication in the Official Gazette are copies, they must be true to the originals or be photocopied from the originals, with certifying stamps and signatures of the competent persons who signed the documents or the authorized persons.

3. The documents sent for publication in the Official Gazette, which are printed copies or copies obtained from electronic networks must have contents true to the originals, be inscribed in the section "Recipients" the phrase "Official Gazette," or the document-sending tickets must be inscribed with the phrase "Documents sent for publication in the Official Gazette," be inscribed clearly with the day, month and year of sending.

4. The documents sent to the Official Gazette offices must be registered in the "Book for registration and comparison of documents published in the Official Gazette."

5. The Official Gazette offices must fully archive the legal documents sent by competent bodies and systematically classified them for convenient reference and use.

Chapter III

RESPONSIBILITIES OF AGENCIES COMPETENT TO PROMULGATE DOCUMENTS FOR THE PUBLICATION THEREOF IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Article 10.- Responsibility of the agencies competent to promulgate documents for sending documents for publication in the Official Gazette

1. The agencies competent to promulgate documents or the agencies authorized by the document-promulgating agencies have the responsibility to send fully and on time the promulgated documents to the Official Gazette offices according to the provisions in Article 8 of this Decree.

2. The heads of the agencies competent to promulgate documents or the agencies authorized by the document-promulgating agencies shall have to examine and urge the sending of documents to the Official Gazette offices and bear responsibility for the accuracy of the documents, for the failure to send, sending not in full or sending not on time documents for promulgation in the Official Gazette.

Article 11.- Responsibility of the Official Gazette offices in the publication of documents

1. To receive and enter "the Books for registration and comparison of documents published in the Official Gazette" all documents sent by agencies competent to promulgate documents or agencies authorized by document-promulgating agencies.

2. To publish documents in the order: documents which come first shall be published first, come later shall be published later according to the ordinal numbers registered in "the Books for registration and comparison of documents published in the Official Gazette." Where legal documents promulgated by ministries and/or ministerial-level agencies contain provisions on adjusted contents or decisions on important measures or policies, which must be applied in time, they shall be published in the Official Gazette immediately to ensure the effective time of such documents if the heads of the document-promulgating agencies so request in writing.

3. To publish the documents in the Official Gazette within no more than fifteen days as from the date of receiving the documents.

4. To bear responsibility for non-publication, incorrect publication, incomplete publication or late publication of documents they have received.

5. To systemize, archive, disseminate and supply documents already published in the Official Gazette.

6. To return documents to the agencies competent to promulgate such documents upon detecting errors in the contents and legal procedures in the promulgation and sending of the documents for publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 12.- Correction of documents published in the Official Gazette

Documents which are detected as having contained errors after being published in the Official Gazette must be corrected:

1. If the errors rest with the agencies competent to promulgate the documents, the heads or the authorized persons of such agencies must sign the written corrections

2. If the errors rest with the central Official Gazette office, the written corrections shall be signed by the head of the central Official Gazette office or his/her authorized person.

3. If the errors rest with the provincial-level Official Gazette offices, the written corrections shall be signed by the heads of the provincial-level Official Gazette offices or their authorized persons.

Chapter IV

ORGANIZATION, OPERATION AND STATE MANAGEMENT OF THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Article 13.- Organization of the Official Gazette

1. The central Official Gazette office is a non-business unit of the Government Office; has the legal person status, accounts and its own seal.

2. The provincial-level Official Gazette offices are placed under the Offices of the People's Committees of the provinces or centrally-run cities.

The organization of the provincial-level Official Gazette offices shall be stipulated by the provincial-level People's Committee presidents.

Article 14.- Publication and distribution of Official Gazette

1. The central Official Gazette office and the provincial-level Official Gazette offices organize the publication and widespread distribution of the printed Official Gazette among State bodies, socio-political organizations, socio-professional organizations, economic organizations, armed force units and people, including foreign individuals, organizations and representation offices in Vietnam.

2. The State ensures annual funding for publication of Official Gazette. The annual funding for the publication of Official Gazette shall be estimated and allocated according to current law provisions.

3. Printed Official Gazette is provided free of charge for a number of subjects decided by the Prime Minister.

The Official Gazette offices are allowed to earn revenue from activities of publication and distribution of printed Official Gazette in order to partially offset the budgetary expenditures for these activities.

4. The printed Official Gazette is distributed through the Official Gazette offices, postal service enterprises, agents and individuals.

5. The Official Gazette is distributed to foreign countries and translated into foreign language(s). The translations are only valid for reference.

Article 15.- State management of the Official Gazette

1. The Government exercises the uniform State management of the Official Gazette.

2. The contents of the State management of the Official Gazette cover:

a) Elaboration of plannings and plans on development of the Official Gazette.

b) Promulgation of legal documents for use as bases for operation of the Official Gazette.

c) Guidance, examination and inspection of the implementation of regulations on publication and distribution of the Official Gazette.

d) Commendation, handling of violations, settlement of complaints and/or denunciations related to operation of the Official Gazette.

3. The Government Office assists the Government in performing the direct all- sided management of operation of the central Official Gazette office, the publication and distribution of the printed Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, including the management of the Official Gazette publications translated into foreign language(s).

The Government Office assists the Government in guiding the operation of the provincial-level Official Gazette offices.

4. The provincial-level People's Committees manage the operation and decide on the printing and distribution of the Official Gazette in their respective localities.

Chapter V

COMMENDATION, DISCIPLINE AND SETTLEMENT OF COMPLAINTS AND DENUNCIATIONS

Article 16.- Every organization and individual shall have the responsibility to well implement the provisions of the Decree on the Official Gazette. Those organizations and individuals that splendidly implement the provisions of this Decree shall be commended and/or rewarded according to law provisions.

Article 17.- Organizations and individuals that violate the law provisions on Official Gazette operation under this Decree and other relevant law provisions shall, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, be disciplined, administratively handled or examined for penal liability according to law provisions.

Article 18.- Organizations and individuals have the right to complain about acts of violating provisions of this Decree and other law provisions on Official Gazette operation.

Article 19.- Individuals have the right to denounce acts of violating provisions of this Decree and other law provisions on Official Gazette operation.

Article 20.- The competence, order and procedures for settlement of complaints and denunciations related to publication and distribution of Official Gazette shall comply with the law provisions on complaints and denunciations.

Chapter VI

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 21.- Implementation effect

This Decree takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. The previous regulations contrary to this Decree shall all be annulled.

Article 22.- Implementation responsibility

1. The Minister-Director of the Government Office shall have to organize and manage the operation of the central Official Gazette office; guide and examine the operations of the provincial-level Official Gazette offices as provided for in this Decree.

The presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to organize and manage the operation of the Official Gazette offices in their respective localities.

2. The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies or the Government-attached agencies, the chairmen of the People's Councils and the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decree.

On behalf of the Government

Prime Minister
PHAN VAN KHAI